Warren McCleskey was convicted of armed robbery and the murder of a white police officer. At his trial the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. McCleskey challenged his death sentence and claimed that he was being subjected to racial discrimination and provided statistical evidence showing racial disparities in the administration of death sentences. He also presented strong evidence showing that African Americans have been disproportionately sentenced to capital punishment compared to white Americans. While I obviously think that what McCleskey did was wrong, I definitely think that he was right to challenge the constitutionality of his death sentence. McCleskey used the Baldus Study as evidence about how African American defendants
Live Oak and the Trial of Ruby McCollum The city of Live Oak, Florida gained more recognition because of the appalling trial of Ruby McCollum. She was a wealthy, married woman that lived in Live Oak, and in 1952 she had been convicted of killing the city’s only white doctor, Clifford Adams. However, there was much more to the story than just a cruel act of murder. McCollum claimed that Adams had repeatedly raped her, beat her, and forced her to bear his child, although they were lovers for six years.
This case was extremely important and made is so children of all races could attend the same schools. This decision affected the Criminal Justice system as well as society as a whole and allows people to live they way they do
Both the cases of Tom Robinson from the book to kill a mockingbird, and Emmett Till were judged in front of an all white all male jury and they both lost. There were a lot of similarities in the cases the white people got away with what they did. Emmett Till was murdered after he was dared to talk to a white woman and her husband, Roy Bryant ,and his half brother, J.W. Milam kidnaped and beat Till and finally killed him. Tom Robinson was accused of raping a white girl.
Supreme Court in 1967 because his felt that his 4th amendment rights were violated. This case later because known as the “stop and frisk” it’s a clash between the 4th Amendments. In my opinion I felt like McFadden had to right to search all three men because they were looking like they were up to no good so he did the right thing. What if the men would have pulled out their guns and started shooting and there was other people around.
On November 13, 1963, 17-year-old African American Henry Montgomery shot and killed a Caucasian Sheriff Deputy named Charles Hurt in a park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This came to be known as Montgomery v. Louisiana. At Montgomery’s trial, a jury convicted him of murder and he was sentenced to death. In January 1966, the Louisiana Supreme Court annulled this ruling after finding that Montgomery did not receive a fair trial due to public prejudice. The jury then returned a verdict of “guilty without capital punishment” which is an automatic sentence of life without the possibility of parole (Montgomery).
Primary Annotated Bibliography McCleskey v Kemp, 481 U.S. 279 (1987) McCleskey v Kemp is a Supreme Court case that highlighted racism in the death penalty process. The petitioner in the case provided a controversial statistical study that correlated racism in death penalty sentencings. The Supreme Court Justices were asked to answer the question of whether or not the statistical study provided could substantiate that the sentence in the case violated the petitioner’s eighth and fourteenth amendment rights. This case will be the main focus of my research paper.
In everyday news, you hear of white men shooting and murdering people with a darker skin color. For example, the Laquan McDonald case proves racism and lynchings are still present in today’s society. Teenage Laquan McDonald was walking away when suddenly Officer Jason Van Dyke (a white man) started firing multiple shots at him. Laquan McDonald had no reason to be
Furman believed that his death sentence was unfair and he appealed his death sentence. He believed that the application of death sentences were unfairly administered and disproportionately targeted African Americans. The issue was whether or not the imposition of the death
Thurgood Marshall is mainly known for his work in Brown vs Board of Education and as the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Brown vs Broad of Education took place in 1953, and is a landmark trial in American history. Thurgood Marshall was the NAACP executive director of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Thurgood Marshall is part of the civil rights movement and the Brown vs Board of Education case is critical to establishing the philosophy that separate is not equal. The impact of Thurgood Marshall’s argument in Brown vs Board of Education has a continuous impact on American society and philosophy, and is still impacting the social and political movements today.
This is a great question! I find myself thinking that an anthropologist, of that time period would think that Martin Luther King Jr. isn’t wrong or right for tainting with the American culture. They may believe it to be unnecessary or uncomfortable, yet, I don’t think they wouldn’t completely disagree of it. I once read that Ruth Benedict, along with other anthropologist agree that there may be lesser and greater individuals within all races, however, there is no superior or inferior race.
In the essay “The Death Penalty Is a Step Back” the author, Coretta Scott King expresses her feelings about capital punishment and states reasons to back up her argument that the death penalty is both a racist and immoral practice. King believes that capital punishment is immoral and illegal, and that it by no means serves as a deterrent for other possible criminals. The author then further talks about how there have been numerous incidents where the mistakenly convicted is put down in the name of American justice. King then argues that by sentencing someone to death, one is assuming that the person convicted is not capable of rehabilitation. The
The jury in this case was an all white jury who ultimately found him guilty. Stevenson took on the case and believed on McMillan’s innocence and fought for him on appeals which eventually after years of efforts was granted a chance to have courts review the evidence. After proving the states that the witnesses were unreliable and the evidence was false McMillan was granted his freedom after six years on death
He had so much life to live until it was taken away from the cruel punishment of death penalty some people say he deserved it. That is an example of racial bias a 14 year old african american teen killed by death penalty due to a murder he committed of two young caucasianfemales but George was only 14. Supreme court says if your 15 and under you shouldn’t receive a death penalty because you are not seen as an adult unless your 18 or older 15 and under your still seen as a juvenile. Then why did George stinney get executed ? Is it far that kids have been getting killed by death penalty due to their actions.
In order to understand the Eighth Amendment and how it pertains to To Kill A Mockingbird, one needs to understand the unjust ways the death penalty was implemented in the 1930’s with minority groups, especially African Americans. To this day, some still argue over whether the death penalty is discriminating towards African Americans and other minority groups or if it is even constitutional. In the novel, Atticus Finch, a white man, accepts the challenge of defending a black man, Tom Robinson for the accusation of raping and beating a white woman. Atticus is aware of the challenges he will face to persuade the judge and jury that Tom Robinson is innocent, as well as the backlash he and his family will be subjected to as a result of defending a black man. For example Atticus’ kids, Jem and Scout, were getting treated differently because “...Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers.”
Based on all the information provided at the trial of Tom Robinson the jury should have found him not guilty. But in the south, white people were racist towards people of color. As a result of this Tom Robinson was found guilty with no evidence to prove that he was. In this trial, the jury was racist and prejudice towards Tom Robinson and that lead to him being found guilty of a crime that had no medical evidence at